Algeria crisis: freed British hostages describe 'relief'

One of the Britons freed from the Algerian hostage crisis says that he has "never
been so relieved" as when the country's army arrived to get him out.

4:51PM GMT 18 Jan 2013

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The Scottish man, identified only as Ian, said he was "very relieved" to have been freed, but added: "Our thoughts are with colleagueswho are still there at the moment."

His travelling companion, who gave his name as Darren Matthews from England, said: "I feel safe at the moment, but I won't feel 100 per cent happy until I'm back in the UK, until I see my family, then I'll be happy."

Two of their fellow British survivors appeared to shrug off their experiences as they prepared to fly home.

One man in his 50s told Algerian state television: "[The army] did a fantastic job, I was very impressed with the Algerian army, it was a very exciting episode, I feel sorry for everybody that has been injured but other than that I enjoyed it.”

The second man, speaking with a north-eastern accent, said: “The gendarmes did a fantastic job, kept us all nice and safe and fought off the bad guys, I never really felt in any danger to be honest.”

It is unclear whether the two men were among a group of 30 Britons held hostage inside the In Amenas gas plant, or whether they had escaped on Wednesday during the initial attack by al-Qaeda terrorists on buses taking workers to and from the local airport.

Up to 12 Britons are still thought to be unaccounted for as the Algerian army continues trying to flush out the remaining kidnappers.